A driver assistance device for a motor vehicle that monitors a lane adjacent to the lane traveled by the motor vehicle for the presence of other vehicles and outputs a warning signal to the driver of the motor vehicle if a change to this adjacent lane would result in a conflict with a vehicle already located on the lane is known, e.g., from DE 199 21 449 C1. This known driver assistance device monitors a so-called blind spot section, i.e., a region located laterally behind the vehicle carrying the driver assistance device. This blind spot section typically can only be monitored with difficulty by the driver of the vehicle by means of rearview mirrors and vehicles approaching from the rear can easily be overlooked.
This typical driver assistance device cannot respond to a vehicle that moves in parallel to the vehicle carrying the driver assistance device to the lane adjacent to the neighboring lane, because otherwise the driver would also refrain from a change to the closest adjacent lane when this lane is actually free.
A hazardous situation that typical lane change driver assistance devices are not capable of catching occurs if two vehicles attempt to merge from different directions onto a lane located between them. Such a situation can occur in particular if, as schematically shown in FIG. 1, a first motor vehicle 1 on a passing lane 4 of a freeway passes a motor vehicle 2 moving on the right lane 5 at the level of an entry 6 and simultaneously a third motor vehicle 3 attempts to reach the right lane 5 from the entry 6. In particular if the second vehicle 2 is a truck, the driver of the motor vehicle 1 generally cannot see the traffic on the entry 6 while he passes the truck 2, and the driver of the vehicle 3 also has no possibility of seeing the vehicle 1 before it has passed the truck 2. Therefore, if both other vehicles only pay attention to the truck 2 while merging, an accident can easily occur.
It is at least one object to provide means that help the driver of a motor vehicle to avoid such a hazardous situation. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.